After Saturday night we took it a lot easier on Sunday. All day was spent by the pool, relaxing and reading. It was cloudy, but still really warm so dipping in and out the pool was a great way of keeping cool. After a quiet day we got ready to go into the city for dinner. Before we sat on Stephen's balcony and had a couple of beers watching our first Vietnamese thunderstorm as rain lashed down all around the hotel.
Thankfully it only lasted several minutes and by the time it came to get our taxi it had stopped. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant called Lemongrass, which was a small, but very nice restaurant near the centre of the town. Having decided not to go clubbing we decided to go big on the food and eat as many different dishes as possible. In fact we ordered so much food, that the waiter stopped us ordering any more and said that we had ordered enough. I was sceptical, but it turned out he was dead right and we had just enough food to make ourselves full to bursting. We tried everything from crabs' claws, to satay chicken, pork dishes and beef dishes, all with noodles and rice. The food was all very good and very tasty. The lemongrass marinades on several of the dishes were especially delicious. Once we'd finished things off with a bowl of ice cream we went for a walk through the city.
We were close to the Saigon Opera House and it was clearly a very wealthy part of the city. The buildings around the opera house were a lot newer, more modern and appeared very much like many large western cities. Many were shops carrying the huge shopping brands such as Gucci, D&K and Rolex. There were also a number of big hotel chains, such as Sheraton, in this area. It was a nice part of the city, and clearly had been redeveloped and grown over the last decade as tourism to the area has increased so dramatically.
After a short walk we found a roof top bar, which had a live Vietnamese rock band playing largely covers of western classics. We sat down and enjoyed a few cocktails and chatted away for about an hour before heading back to the hotel in a taxi. Thankfully tonight's journey home cost no more than $15. Having sat out on the roof bar for over an hour without air conditioning we were all quite warm, so even though it was after midnight when we got back to the hotel we decided to go for a swim in the pool. The hotel staff very kindly lit the pool up and we took a can of beer each and chilled out in the lovely cool water. We found ways to amuse ourselves with underwater head stand competitions, doggy paddle races and holding your breath the longest! It was a great way to end another great night on holiday.
Today, Monday, we got up early to go on a river boat trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. Cu Chi village is an area of Vietnam, about 65km north of Ho Chi Min City, which remained a Viet Com stronghold right through the American/Vietnam war.
The hour long trip up the river was pretty interesting too. I have to admit I thought the river would be teaming with more people and boats going about their business. There were several boats, not many fishing, most of them were haulage carrying construction marterials and there were a few carrying large shipments of fruit. Many of the boats seemed to be staffed entirely by families, as women and children were all in the cockkpit area. I am not sure, but it did look like that some of these families lived on the boats they worked on. We passed one boat, where a mother was washing her children and another where the family were sat eating a meal. Some boats were staffed by large groups of men, so clearly it's not all the same. The boats too were of all different sizes and ages, some looked very old and rusty, whereas others were a lot newer.
The riverbank also told a lot. There was lots of construction sites as new buildings were going up, it was hard to guess exactly what they were going to be, but I thought they looked more like residential flats/houses rather than hotels. There were lots of houses and buildings built right on to the bank's edge and in some case right over the top of it on stilts. Many of these houses and in some cases businesses were poorly built made up of corrugated iron panels, wood and other makeshift materials. They looked quite poor, but it was hard to judge without seeing the fronts of the buildings. We did manage to get a brief look at some of the people that lived there, and I saw scenes that you would expect to see at any family home, people preparing meals, hanging up washing, dogs barking and children playing.
When we got to Cu Chi it was apparent straight away that this was a tourist hot spot, as several tour buses and large groups of people were already gathering round ticket kiosks and souvenir stands. Vietnam is clearly working hard to build its tourism offering. Cu Chi Villagers built over 250km of tunnels over 20 years of war. The network of tunnels allowed them to move about and conduct a gorilla war with the Americans that surrounded the area with 3 bases and bombed it repeatedly. The tunnel network also had bunkers and rooms built underground. These rooms were designed to hide families and protect people from the US bombs, some of the bunkers served as medical facilities, kitchens and bedrooms. They were extremely impressive. The tunnels were tiny, really not designed for the likes of Stephen and I, we did manage to get a go at crawling a specially made one for tourists, such as ourselves, and that was tight and cramped enough as it was. How the people of the village lived and fought in those tiny tunnels for so long, I do not know. I guess needs must and faced with such an aggressive force with superior weaponry and numbers this was the only way they could resist. The fact that the Americans never secured the area proved that they worked.
The temperature there was 35c and very humid. The sun was out too and just walking about caused a sweat. It must have been horrendous for US and Vietnamese soldiers fighting in that environment. We heard that the Vietnamese soldiers carried very light equipment less than 3kg compared to the US troops who wore over 20kg, so it would have been even more difficult for them.
After the tunnels we headed back down the river on the boat. Tonight we are going to eat at the Vietnamese restaurant next to the hotel. It will be an early night tonight, as tomorrow we start our bike tour early. If the weather and humidity stays like this then it is going to be really hard work on the bike. Also, I've been told that the Mekong Delta area has loads and loads of cobra snakes! I am very scared...
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